A depressing thing I've come to understand over the years is that if enough people with microphones say something is true, then it effectively is. I don't mean they can create actual Truth, but the lie becomes a foundation for a whole alternative narrative based on that original lie which is impossible to refute ("Al Gore claimed he invented the internet" for the oldheads).
Also there are a lot of people with microphones who are just absolute liars, and this rarely matters to the people who empower them (journalists who quote them, for example).
